Irish concerns over Sex Education.

February 13, 2019

Sir, – When the uproar arose over the so-called “baptism barrier”, the mantra of those assailing the Catholic Church’s position was the overriding importance of parental choice. But now that veneer has been stripped away with the proposals to neuter any parent’s rights to choose to have their children taught Catholic values around sexual activity. What has been exposed is a naked attempt to foist a pagan/atheistic/satanic (take your pick) hedonism on all schoolchildren regardless of their parents’ wishes.The Catholic Church has a beautiful, coherent, holistic theology of the body, which holds that sexual activity should be characterised by an indissoluble bond between the partners and an openness to new life. Such is the importance it attaches to this teaching is that the degree to which one lives it, or repents for infractions of it, could be a decisive factor in determining whether one enjoys eternal bliss in the afterlife or the separation from God known as Hell. To prevent the passing on of this sound doctrine is blatant persecution of the Catholic Church. The issue is not whether parents may choose to opt out of this education if they do not agree with it, the issue has become whether parents’ rights to choose it should be respected.– Yours, etc

COLM FITZPATRICK,

Castleknock,

Dublin 15.

The Irish Times.

Baker clause ignored on careers duty.

February 13, 2019

The Baker clause has been labelled a “law without teeth” after it emerged the government did not take any action against schools for non-compliance in the first year of its existence.

The Department for Education also admitted it only wrote to half of the trusts it originally claimed to have contacted in relation to non-compliance. Around two-thirds of secondary schools are thought to be breaking the law.

Halal and Kosher meat cut from Oxford college menu.

February 13, 2019

The Oxford college which cut octopus from its menu in the name of inclusivity has now voted to ban Halal and Kosher meat, citing animal welfare concerns.

Students at Somerville initially set out to “ensure that different groups of people can eat in hall more”, following the College President’s decision to ban octopus tartine from the Freshers’ welcome dinner.

But undergraduates argued that serving Halal and Kosher meat was problematic due to “animal welfare concerns” on the basis that animals are not stunned prior to being killed.

Should schools start later in the day?

February 8, 2019

Meditation and sleep are proven to aid mental health and productivity in young people, allowing enhanced coherence between brain parts.

Lack of sleep is directly related to heightened stress, which has been shown to shrink the brain’s capacity, leading to increased emotional tendencies and worsened short-term memory. How can we expect our children to concentrate at school if they are unrested and stressed?

Should middle class parents lose free nursery hours.

February 8, 2019

Middle class parents should lose their free nursery hours because the Government’s flagship policy is “entrenching inequality”, a select committee has said.

Under the policy, working parents who earn up to £100,000 between them are entitled to 30 hours of free childcare for three to four-year-olds, which is double the 15 hours they were previously entitled to.

The multi-billion pound taxpayer funded scheme, which came into force in September 2017, was aimed at encouraging parents to get back into work rather than getting put off by prohibitive childcare costs.